The Lue Languange

Lue ¹ is one of the dialects of the Tai language family, which in its totality stretches from the island of Hainan, ² through much of the north of Vietnam and areas of southern China (chiefly Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan), through Laos and Thailand, across the northern reaches of Burma and finally into Assam ³ in India. A division of the entire family into three branches — Northern, Central and Southwestern — has been proposed by F. K. Li (1959) based on comparative lexicon. More recently, Gedney (1973) suggests a two-way division by combining the Central and Southwestern branches. The dialects of the Northern branch are found in the Guangxi-Guizhou region. The Central branch of dialects covers the border areas between China and the more easterly portions of the north of Vietnam. The Southwestern branch covers the remaining area of the Tai-speaking domain, by far the largest in terms of geographic area. The last is under consideration here, as it includes Lue and the related dialects of Lao, Shan, Khuen, Northern Thai, Siamese, White Tai, Black Tai, and Red Tai.